Love and the Man of Iron
by LisaLovesCurry
Summary: After being held captive in Afghanistan, Tony Stark's life changed forever. But along the way to becoming Iron Man, Tony also found his assistant, Pepper Potts, becoming something more than simply an employee or a friend. A romance set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
1. Better

Hi everyone! Since I'm about to finish a long-running story, rather than go into withdrawal, I've decided to write a new and hopefully long-ish fic about Tony and Pepper. It's all from Tony's POV, unlike "Nightlight" and "Daylight," but "Love and the Man of Iron" will contain the same sorts of lovely moments between the two of them. (I'll try to follow the movies as closely as possible, but I reserve the right to make up some fun scenes of my own. :))

FYI, the title of this fic is sort of a joke (which you have probably heard before): it refers to the fact that Robert Downey Jr. has played both Tony Stark and Sherlock Holmes, and in one Sherlock Holmes novel, Watson refers to Holmes as "the man of iron." (Chapter 12 of "Hound of the Baskervilles"—check it out!) So, yeah—for a while I've known that if I ever did a longer TonyXPepper fic, this is what I'd have to call it. :) In this first chapter, Tony returns from Afghanistan and finds himself thinking about what his life needs to become, and why he thought about Pepper so much while he was gone. (Also, I plan to try and update every other week, but we'll see how that goes.) See you again soon!

Disclaimer: I own no part of the Marvel Universe...only my lustful thoughts for Tony Stark are my own...:)

_Better_

It was strange to be back, after being away for so long. Tony didn't say much to Rhodey on the flight home—what was there to say? Things had been completely different when he'd left-_he'd_ been completely different-and now he had a hole in his chest with an arc reactor inside, and he knew that the only way he'd ever get a decent night's sleep again was if he quit making weapons, and other than Rhodey, who the hell would have really missed him if he'd died? Obie, sure, but much as Tony thought of him as a second father, Tony had to admit that with Obie, what they had was as much about business as genuine affection. Pepper was different though.

He hadn't thought about her much at first. At first, it was hard to think about much of anything, other than the car battery that was keeping him alive. But then he'd been eating with Yinsin one day, and he'd wondered what she'd done on her birthday. He'd wondered, while they built the suit, what she was thinking while they looked for him, because as much as he annoyed her, Tony was sure that Pepper would actually miss him if he never came back. Which was nice, if a little strange.

She could do better than him, find a boss who'd pay her just as much without giving her nearly as much aggravation, but for years, she'd stuck by him. Tony didn't like the idea of her worrying about him, because he already owed her too much. How could you repay a person like Pepper? Not in any monetary sense, but for the fact that she was nice to him when she didn't have to be, got rid of girls for him, handled every detail of his life with almost unnerving good cheer.

Pepper was happy with her life, Tony decided, which was one of many sort of surprising things he'd decided in the cave, but she wasn't happy in spite of him. He hoped that maybe, for some weird reason, working for him actually made her happy, which was strange, because before all this, before the arc reactor, how often had _he_ been happy? Actually happy, and not drunk, or determined to distract himself with girls or parties or working on his cars.

_What was I trying to distract myself from anyway?_ he wondered on the flight home. _That I can never live up to the guy my dad was? That in spite of what our PR firm says, we're not actually making the world a better place?_

Pepper probably did make the world a better place though; how many charitable foundations had she, in his name, given huge sums of money to, and how many charities had Stark Industries started or sponsored since she'd started working for him? Probably lots. Maybe, just maybe, all of Pepper's hard work had intentionally improved more lives than he'd unintentionally destroyed through his complacency, his indifference or just plain ignorance of consequences.

_I'm supposed to be a genius, but it doesn't take an IQ like mine to figure out that if you make things that explode, you're hurting at least as many people as you're helping,_ he thought grimly. _Why was that not obvious before?_

Looking back, Tony was pleasantly surprised that he'd had the sense to hire Pepper when he did. He'd known that he needed a personal assistant, and he'd interviewed several attractive candidates who could have kept track of his schedule _and_ who would have slept with him, but even as young and as relatively stupid as he'd been at the time, Tony had known that he didn't need that. What he needed was a personal assistant who would be honest with him, who he could trust, and who would keep things professional. (He always tried to keep business separate from his notorious personal life, but several of those PA candidates had tempted him to break that rule.)

Somehow he'd known within thirty seconds of meeting Pepper that she was the only person for the job. Sure, she was pretty, but when she looked him in the eye, he didn't see an ulterior motive-attraction to most of the PA candidates had been a mutual thing, after all. Pepper, clearly, hadn't seen being his PA as a stepping stone to a better job, or as a way to get close to him for business or financial or personal reasons. She'd answered his cursory questions about education (she was smarter than the other candidates) and work experience (she'd been a secretary, but she'd have been promoted already if not for the fact that she questioned some decisions made by her boss, who did in fact sound like a bit of an asshole—Tony, who could be a bit of an ass himself, had an eye for that sort of thing).

"So, Miss Potts," Tony had said at the end of the interview. "Last question. Why should I hire you?"

"Well, I think the type of work experience I've described in my resume make me very qualified to—"

"Not—not the reason that sounds nice," Tony had said, waving his hand. "What is the honest reason that I should hire you?"

Pepper had given him an appraising look, and then she'd smiled very slightly, obviously realizing that whatever she said next would determine whether or not she got the job. "Honestly? From everything I know about you, Mr. Stark, which admittedly isn't much, your life is a mess, and you need someone to manage it. I can do that."

Tony had smiled a rare, genuine smile at that. (He hadn't been CEO for very long at that point, and sincerity had seemed like weakness of character to his younger and stupider self.)

"Okay, You're hired. Welcome aboard, Ms. Potts." And she'd been managing his life, with the patience of a saint, ever since.

As they landed, Tony knew that he had to get ready for what was coming next. Obie wasn't going to be happy, the board wasn't going to be happy...but Pepper might be happy if he tried to start doing the right thing for a change. Maybe he'd even be happy too-he'd been kind of a selfish jerk for thirty-plus years, but hey, better to try and change late in the game than not at all. Maybe the thing in his chest, horrible as it had seemed at first, was the beginning of something better, or at least a sign that if given the choice between dying and evolving, he'd evolve. Was he the kind of guy who could evolve into a decent human being? Stranger things had happened...


	2. Calculations

Hi everyone! Today's chapter is a short but sweet look at Tony and Pepper dancing. I love this moment in "Iron Man," because it's really fun to consider what's going through their minds during this scene—Tony especially is seeing someone he's known for a long time in a new light, and when they almost kiss but then don't, that gets me every time; seeing Tony out of his element is always interesting. :) Thanks for your reviews, and I'll see you again in two weeks!

_Calculations_

Tony Stark knew that he was good at math. Okay, that was an understatement, but a little false modesty never hurt. He'd learned from experience that it could help to approach issues that weren't of a mathematical nature as though they were equations that could be solved just as long as he considered every variable. Math was easy. People could be hard. Dancing with Pepper Potts would involve a lot of calculations.

At first, he didn't even know it was her. He'd turned away from the bar—he could care less what this Coulson guy wanted to talk about—and he'd seen the back of a beautiful woman in a blue dress. He'd immediately thought,_ I should dance with her, _and not just because it would be a fun way to escape the agent of the Strategic Homeland Whatever. Then he took a closer look at the familiar shade of red hair, and his eyes narrowed. _She usually wears her hair up, so I can't really tell—is her hair that long? Is that really—_

And then she turned her head slightly, and it really was Pepper Potts, and for a second or two, all Tony could do was stare. He wondered fleetingly if this was what falling in love felt like. Tony didn't think he'd ever actually been in love before; lust was something that he was certainly well-acquainted with, and sometimes he slept with women just because he liked the abstract idea of doing so, because he liked the idea of spending a few hours with someone beautiful whose desires he could satisfy while she satisfied his. But this feeling was different.

Whatever this was, it was different than the urge to possess her temporarily, just because he could; that was how it was with other women, but with Pepper, something else had entered the equation. He realized uneasily that he wasn't thinking about seducing her, wasn't calculating (as he usually did with beautiful women) what he'd need to say to talk her into bed. Usually it didn't take much, but it occurred to him that with Pepper, it might actually be impossible. Which was fine, because oddly enough, he just wanted to talk to her. And that was what he told Coulson, that he needed to talk to his assistant, because suddenly, he really _needed_ to establish why he felt drawn to her like this, why it was like he'd never really seen her until now...

_Wow. Okay, so I really need to dance with her. And I don't even need an excuse to talk to her._

As Tony approached her, the potential consequences of what he might do next flashed through his head. _We're just gonna dance, we won't do anything else. This is Pepper, this is too important to screw up, so I'll just have to be perfect—I am_ not _hiring a new P.A., I could never find anyone as good as she is..._

Then he opened his mouth, and once they were talking, it was a simple matter of finding her hand and pulling her onto the dance floor. Then they were dancing, and though Pepper didn't say much at first, while they talked, Tony had ample time to consider the data at hand:

_Pepper looks amazing tonight. She had plans on her birthday...were those plans with friends, or was that a date? And if it was, is she single now? I'm not seeing anyone. Actually, this is the first time since I came back that I'm actually, really noticing any woman, which sort of supports the board's idea that I have PTSD...I_ really _like her dress..._

Tony was so busy staring at the lines of her face (seriously, how had he never noticed her profile, or the way her hair caught the light and shone like gold—yikes, he could never say any of that to her out loud), it took him a few seconds to realize that she seemed nervous, or embarrassed, or both.

_She is actually right, it's weird for us to be dancing at one of these things, because we've never danced together before, and people will notice...and I don't care. But she cares, so we should go outside, and I should probably try and kiss her. She's right, I'd be lost without her. I still can't believe she helped me change the arc reactor...I have, what, _four_ people in my life who I can trust implicitly, and she's one of them...and that's a scary thought. Deal with it later, or...not. Maybe just have another martini._

They went outside. And even as they were talking (_flirting_, he noted,_ though I always flirt with Pepper, this feels..._different _than usual_) Tony continued to consider the variables.

_She's really close—why didn't I ever really notice her eyes before? I keep staring at them lately—yeah, I should quit doing that, though she'd be the first to tell me I'm already the world's most unprofessional boss..._

_She's closer—okay, so at least she wants to kiss me too—I mean, it seems safe to assume, but this is Pepper, she excels at doing things I don't expect—like that thing she gave me, with the old arc reactor...unless that's the kind of thing every PA does after their boss survives a kidnapping..._

_Okay, so if we kiss, what happens next?_

Maybe that was the question that made both of them pause. Then they stopped altogether, and she asked him to go get her a martini. So, he went back inside.

_When I get back, we'll have a drink, then we'll kiss,_ he told himself. But because Tony was so skilled at math of all kinds, he could usually tell when he'd miscalculated._ Should have kissed her when I had the chance_, he thought with a frown, suddenly feeling like he might not get the opportunity again for a while.


	3. Holes

Hi everyone! Sorry for the late update, but I took a vacation over the 4th, and now that I'm back home, I'm just now starting to catch up on various things, including fanfic. :) In this week's chapter, Pepper finally gets some dialogue! (Although actually, this is the first chapter where Tony talks to Pepper and isn't just thinking about her, so yay for dialogue!)

This chapter was inspired by a scene in the first Iron Man movie that, maddeningly, just ends after Pepper says "Are those bullet holes?" So, I wrote what I thought might have happened after that. Thanks so much for your reviews, and I'll see you again next Sunday! :)

Disclaimer: I own no part of the Marvel Universe. (But I do own Tony and Pepper dolls. :))

_Holes_

"Are those bullet holes?" Pepper whispered, her expression horrified.

"...um," Tony said, wincing as one of the robotic arms attempting to remove the suit finally managed to detach a gauntlet—okay, so obviously he still needed to calibrate things—next time, it wouldn't be so tight...

"We both know there's no good answer to that question," he said finally, sighing with relief as the arms removed the armor covering his legs and set him on the ground. Fine, so JARVIS had been right, and if he just held still, it went a lot faster—

"Is this what you've been working on?" Pepper said, her voice still barely above a whisper. She was gaping at the suit, and it occurred to Tony that this was the first time she'd ever seen it. He'd never actually told her, or anyone, the exact details of his escape from the cave in Afghanistan.

He'd explained to various intelligence agencies how he and Yinsin had used the materials they'd been given to build a Jericho missile to blow up most of their captors, but he'd neglected to mention the Mark I's role. At the time, omitting that detail had only made sense: everyone thought he was about to crack up anyway. Mentioning a weaponized metal suit he'd built—that could _fly_—didn't seem like it would convince anyone that he was still sane.

"It is," Tony said, trying to gauge her reaction as she stared up at the ceiling. "Remember when you came down here a couple weeks ago, and I was working on a flight stabilizer? Yeah, that was...for this."

The other gauntlet came off then too, followed by the chest piece, and then the few remaining pieces of the suit rose above his head. The whole thing needed a new coat of paint thanks to the bullet holes Pepper had just mentioned, and obviously, there were a few structural issues that needed to be addressed. The next time he went out in the suit, he wanted to be a little more durable than the F-22s that had almost knocked him out of the sky.

Pepper whipped her head around, gawking at him now instead of the ceiling. "Wait, that thing can fly? You built a _flying _metal suit?"

"Flying is—part of what it does," Tony said with a shrug, stepping away from the arms as they folded in on themselves and retracted into the floor. He followed Pepper's gaze as metal plates slid over the robotic rigs he'd installed in the ceiling and beneath the garage. Once they were closed, the room looked the same as it had before his three month absence, aside from a few experimental pieces of the suit that were lying on the workbench.

"Yeah, those are new too."

Pepper seemed more shocked than impressed, which made Tony a little unsure about how to proceed. Belatedly, he remembered leaving her at the party—had that only been a couple of days ago? He hadn't slept since before that eventful evening—he was running on fumes and what little caffeine was left in his system, and honestly, ever since he'd come home, there had been a lot of moments like this, when he stood next to Pepper, who he'd known for all these years, and he didn't know what to say to her anymore. Before, he would have known what words would calm her down, charm her, appease her...but now his mind was just a blank.

"And—_why _did you build all this exactly?" Pepper said slowly, still staring at him like he'd completely lost it. Though, yeah, building a flying metal suit was, when taken out of context, exactly the kind of thing he might do if he'd gone insane.

"This is, um...it's how I got away," Tony said, glancing at his feet and then running a hand through his hair nervously. He had no desire to discuss this, but the last thing he needed was Pepper thinking he'd gone off the deep end.

"What?" she whispered.

"In—you know," he said, raising his eyebrows at her. "When I escaped, I did it with this. I mean, I had help, putting it together. The guy I was with, he—he bought me some time so I could, and...yeah. I blew up their camp and flew away. In a suit like this—I mean, not as elaborate as this, that one was just a prototype..."

"So you flew away?" Pepper said slowly.

"Yeah," Tony said, nodding. "And, I would have told you about this before now, except everyone's been looking at me like I'm crazy lately anyway, so I didn't want the one person who, hopefully, thinks I'm still mostly sane to...change their mind."

Pepper continued staring at him for a moment, and then she looked back up at the ceiling, toward the panels covering the recess that the suit had disappeared into. "This does seem more than a little crazy," she said at last, but when she looked at him again, she was smiling. "So all that stuff I heard on the news about something mysterious rescuing civilians in Gulmira? That was you?"

"Officially, I know nothing about that, and if anyone asks, I was drinking heavily at the time with a blonde on each arm," Tony said briskly. "If necessary, you might have to find a couple of reliable blonds to corroborate that."

Pepper nodded, her expression thoughtful. "Okay. I'm—I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about this. Because it does seem crazy."

"Definitely," Tony agreed. "If I were an objective observer of this, I'd be...disconcerted, to say the least."

"But...if it's what you need right now, then...I think I can adjust," she said, biting her lip. "Just, be careful, okay?"

"Pepper, it's fine," he said, awkwardly patting her arm, then letting go (hopefully) before she realized it was awkward. "I know what I'm doing."

"Really?" she said, raising her eyebrows. "Because the bullet holes don't exactly fill me with confidence."

"Those are—next time, that won't happen," he said quickly. "It's—like you said, I need to do this. And I might need your help. Can you deal with that?"

Pepper was still biting her lip. "Can I deal with this on a case-by-case basis?"

"Absolutely," Tony said, surprised to find himself relieved that she hadn't said no outright. "I know it's gonna take some getting used to, but—"

"Just, no more bullet holes, please," Pepper said, giving him a worried look. "And maybe you should get some sleep. Have you slept at all since the last time I saw you?"

"Sleep is—highly overrated," he said, rubbing his eyes—then he noticed that it was getting tough to keep his eyes open. The adrenaline that had kept him going for hours was apparently wearing off. "Um. Actually, maybe a nap wouldn't hurt."

"It won't," Pepper said, smiling. "I promise."

"I'll—be asleep then, and I'll call you later for coffee," he said, glancing around the garage one last time before heading for the stairs. Pepper followed him up to the living room.

"Will that be all, Mr. Stark?" she asked as he headed for his room.

"Yes, thank you, Ms. Potts," Tony said, making an effort to walk normally (instead of staggering with sudden exhaustion) toward his bed, and wondering if the holes in his suit, like the hole in his chest, were some kind of omen of things to come.

_If so, it's a damn good thing I don't believe in omens,_ Tony thought with a weary smile.


	4. Time

Hi everyone! Sorry for the late update, but since I missed posting a chapter last week, that means that you get _two _chapters this week! (I actually had the second chapter ready first, so I figure that I might as well post them in the same weekend.) Today's chapter focuses on Tony racing to stop Stane and save Pepper at the end of "Iron Man"—I imagine that that must have been a pretty unpleasant flight for Tony, who would have had a lot on his mind at the time. Thanks so much for your reviews (hint, hint :)), and I'll see you again tomorrow, (and then again in two weeks after that).

Disclaimer: I own no part of the Marvel Universe. I do own several Marvel bobbleheads though, so that's pretty fun. :)

_Time_

Getting into the suit and getting in the air seemed to take hours, but as soon as he was en route to the Stark Industries R&D building (Rhodey hopefully right behind him in the fastest car he owned), Tony had time to think, which wasn't really ideal at the moment. As soon as JARVIS reminded him that the arc reactor he was using hadn't been designed for flight, Tony started doing the math: yes, he could make it to R&D, but once he got there, he was going to have to take down Stane fast. Which would be easy, or a challenge, depending on the specs of the suit that Stane had had R&D build for him.

Tony had to think of him as 'Stane' now. Up until an hour ago, he'd been 'Obie,' his friend and mentor, pretty much the last guy in the world he'd ever thought would turn on him. But everything had changed tonight—Tony didn't think he could ever kill Obie, but he would have to kill Stane. Stane, who'd been his father's friend, who he'd known his whole life...who was the reason he'd almost died in a cave, and why he'd almost died again tonight.

Tony didn't know how to process a betrayal this big. He knew, logically, that Stane wanted him dead, had tried to make it happen several times already, and that he'd doubtless try killing him again before the night was over. But it still felt like a punch in the gut every time he thought about it, because honestly, Tony had thought he'd known Obie better than he'd known his own father. He'd known him longer, certainly, and he'd clearly hidden his plans for a hostile takeover of the company pretty well, because Tony had never suspected anything like this from Obadiah Stane.

He'd thought they were friends, he'd thought...well, it really didn't matter now, did it? Tonight he would have to kill Stane before Stane killed him. He'd probably never be able to pinpoint the exact moment when they'd gone from friends (or at least allies) to mortal enemies; for Tony, it had come tonight, but he guessed that Stane had started hating him a long time ago, and maybe now it was too late to ever understand exactly why.

_Okay, so I can think of a lot of reasons why people in general might hate me, but Stane specifically? I guess I could ask him what the hell finally set him off, but I doubt I'll get a coherent answer from a bloodthirsty maniac in a metal suit,_ Tony thought grimly, willing his own suit to go faster, to get to Pepper before Stane did. Pepper. What the hell was he going to do about the things he was feeling for her?

Part of the problem was that he wasn't exactly sure what he was feeling. As he flew toward her, he knew that he couldn't even contemplate the thought that he was too late, that she was already—no, he couldn't handle that right now, so Tony forced himself to try and figure out what it was that he felt for Pepper Potts. He was leery to attach the word 'love' to it, given his limited experience with that. Did loving someone make you blurt out the truth even when the truth involved flying metal suits and mysterious bad guys? If he really loved Pepper, why had he risked getting her involved in all this?

_Because I don't have anyone else_, Tony thought grimly. _If I lose her_—but he really didn't think he had the mental fortitude to finish that thought, so he pushed the suit to move as fast as he dared, calculating how much power it would take to cover the remaining distance, how much power he'd have left when he arrived. He wouldn't be able to save Pepper if he flew so fast that his heart gave out before he even got there—he had to pace himself, had to consider what kinds of weapons Stane's suit was likely to have, and how he could counter them with what little power the arc reactor could still generate...

_I just need enough time to figure it out_, Tony thought frantically, not referring to the weakening arc reactor—the math on that was easy—but whatever the hell was going on (or rather not going on) with Pepper. _I'll just ask her, as soon as I finish this__, _he told himself_. I'll just ask if…if we could try for, what, some semblance of normalcy? __Find out if she'd consider adding 'girlfriend' to her credentials? _If we could just, maybe, go on a date, only not like my usual dates, just to see if she could…see me the way I've started to see her.

Tony knew that it was kind of a long shot. After all, she'd been his assistant for over ten years: she knew about pretty much every skeleton in his closet, was intimately acquainted with his every flaw and indiscretion—hell, she'd had her hand inside his chest. If she tried, he was sure that Pepper Potts could think of literally hundreds of reasons why dating him would be a bad idea. But Tony was way past the point of concerning himself with the logical arguments for why he and Pepper shouldn't become romantically involved. Rationally, he knew that it could screw things up—that _he _would probably screw things up—but he also knew that he didn't really care. _If I'm still alive tomorrow, I'm mentioning the girlfriend idea_, he told himself, and then the familiar silhouette of Stark Industries appeared before him, forcing Tony to return to the problem of Obadiah Stane...


	5. Heart

Hi again! Today's chapter also takes place at the end of "Iron Man," and in it, Tony and Pepper have a brief moment together after they destroy the arc reactor. Thanks for your reviews, and I'll see you again in two weeks! :)

Disclaimer: I own no part of the Marvel Universe. (I can't wait to read more of "Invincible Iron Man" though. :))

_Heart_

As Tony hovered on the edge of consciousness, surrounded by bits of the arc reactor Pepper had just destroyed, he wondered if his heart was about to give out. He imagined that he could feel the arc reactor in his chest—ironically, the first one he'd told Pepper to destroy—sputtering, struggling to continue working after he'd pushed it to its limits and beyond. He'd never designed it to power a suit like the Mark III—it was intended to keep him alive, but it was capable of little else. Even powering the Mark I had been a stretch. Now he was alive, for the moment at least, because Pepper had been...what? Sentimental? "Proof That Tony Stark Has A Heart" seemed like a sentimental phrase, but under the present circumstances, it seemed almost prophetic.

Tony Stark had never been in love, as far as he could tell. He'd certainly been in lust plenty of times, but he'd never met anyone who'd made him feel more than that. And if he thought about the women he'd been with, he guessed that he'd rarely broken any of their hearts. Almost everyone he'd ever slept with had, for the most part, been like him: they'd been looking for sex with someone interesting and good-looking, not a relationship, or at least that was what he told himself. If he thought about it, he supposed that he'd never let anyone get close enough to him for love to be a possibility. Did he have a heart, as Pepper's lifesaving gift had declared, or was he still the metaphorically heartless Tony Stark he'd always been, albeit one who now had a physical heart problem?

_Huh. I probably shouldn't fall asleep right now. I'm probably seriously injured and/or about to go into cardiac arrest once the arc reactor powers down. I'll just...rest my eyes for a minute_, Tony thought disjointedly, closing his eyes. He was bleeding and hurting and maybe dying, but he wasn't particularly worried about that. Just then, all he felt was exhaustion.

It wasn't like he hadn't known that something like this might happen: looking back, there were few scenarios where installing an arc reactor in his chest wasn't going to lead to trouble. Lying here now, everything seemed sort of inevitable: after spending his entire life building weapons, he'd tried to do something different. And he had—he'd survived when, logically, there was no way that he should have, and he'd tried to make Yinsen's sacrifice matter.

He'd expected that people would come after him about his refusal to build any more weapons, about the suit, about everything that had happened over the past few months, and he'd known that changing the company, changing the world, wasn't just going to happen overnight. Of course there'd be consequences for trying to change his whole life. But still, the fact that Obie was behind it all...that stung. A guy he'd trusted his whole life, and look at everything he'd done. And for what?

To get his hands on the company? Tony couldn't understand that, couldn't understand wanting anything enough to kill someone over it...except now he'd killed Obie. He'd killed people before too, escaping from Raza's cave. Was he really any better than Obie, just because he only killed people who tried to kill him first?

_I wonder how many people got hurt tonight..._Tony thought grimly, but then he smiled a little. _I wonder how many people I saved tonight. How many lives I've saved since I started this...Pepper!_

Tony's eyes flew open. "Pepper!" he shouted. If she was dead, if Obie had killed her...

"Tony? Oh, thank God!" Pepper called from below him, her voice frantic. "Listen, Coulson's people are coming. Are you hurt?"

"Um, yeah, but I'm still alive," he said, trying to sit up, but then falling back onto the roof again when he realized that most of his body felt bruised beyond recognition. "I'm just...gonna lay here for a bit, okay?"

"I'll be right up, if I can get through what's left of the windows," Pepper said, her voice fading as she moved.

"Careful," he called. "After all this, I would really prefer you not get hurt falling into a huge pile of broken glass."

Pepper didn't respond, but a few minutes later, the sound of her approaching footsteps joined the noise of sirens in the distance. Tony closed his eyes again, grateful that the light from the arc reactor, which had been flickering a few moments ago, was steady now, if a little dim. He wondered if the one that Obie had stolen was still in working order after the fight, and its destructive aftermath. Probably not. At least his heart hadn't stopped yet. As long as the original arc reactor could keep him going, there was a decent chance he'd live long enough to build a new one...

"Yeah, this is so not in my job description," Pepper muttered, making her way carefully up a maintenance ladder leading to the roof in spite of the high heels she was wearing.

"How did you even get up here in those shoes?" Tony wondered.

"Working for you, I've learned to be very graceful under pressure," she said, taking her eyes off the rungs of the ladder as she reached the top. Then she looked at him. "Oh my God, Tony..."

"I think I'm actually okay, except really, really bruised," he said, smiling and waving like they hadn't just survived the explosion of the arc reactor and nearly being murdered by a mutual colleague. "You okay?"

"Fine, just, still in shock, I think," Pepper said, hurrying over to him and crouching down beside him. "I don't think I should move you."

"Yeah, I don't think I should move me either," he said. "Let's just stay here for a bit. Who did you say is coming?"

"Coulson. He went to get reinforcements, to help fix the huge literal and figurative mess we have here," Pepper said, carefully moving a few sharp pieces of debris so she could sit down beside him, her feet folded under her so that her knees were a few inches from his head. "The Strategic Homeland Intervention—you know, whoever he works for—they've been securing a perimeter around the building. Now I'm assuming they're going to help clean up all the damage here and give us a story for the media that sounds better than "our CFO went nuts and tried to kill our CEO.""

"And a lot of other people," Tony said, looking at her out of the corner of his eye. "You sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, just..." her eyes were suddenly filled with tears. "How could he...do all this? I mean, he knew you your whole life. I thought...I mean, he wasn't a friend exactly, but I always trusted Obadiah."

"So did I," Tony said grimly. "Bad idea, I guess."

"But if you can't trust someone you've known your entire life..." Pepper trailed off sadly, and Tony finished her unspoken question in his head: who can you trust?

"I trust you," Tony said firmly. "And Rhodey, and Happy. And...um. That's about it."

Pepper laughed shakily. "Okay, well, that's...better than nothing, I guess."

"Do you trust me?"

Pepper produced a tissue from somewhere (did her suit have pockets? Why didn't all women's suits have pockets?) and dabbed at some blood that had been about to seep into his eye. "Maybe, somewhat shockingly, yes," she said, gently wiping at his face. "I mean, you almost got me killed tonight, but then you saved me."

"You saved me too," Tony admitted, getting that same weird feeling he'd had the night they'd danced together. Looking up at Pepper...he wasn't sure what he was going to do about this strange pull he felt toward her, but he knew that he liked having her close, and that he hoped he didn't run out of blood for her to wipe away anytime soon.

"Well, if I hadn't, I'd be out of a job," she said, trying to sound like she wasn't on the verge of crying, and Tony grinned up at her. "Really though...I'm glad you're okay."

"You too," he said, and then he heard cars pulling up outside the building and the sound of Agent Coulson directing other agents where to go.

"Miss Potts?" Coulson called.

"Up here, Agent Coulson," she called back, and absently, as if she wasn't even thinking about it, she brushed a bit of hair away from Tony's forehead, and somehow that small gesture made him want to seize her hand and kiss it. Later maybe. Right now, he was too tired...

_So maybe I am different from Obie, he thought, _shutting his eyes again._ Different enough that I can sleep at night, anyway_. Tony wasn't an ironmonger anymore. He was...whoever he was when he put on the suit. Not the old Tony Stark, but someone new, someone tougher, someone smarter...and someone with a heart.


	6. Successor

Hi everyone! Sorry for the late update, but this chapter ran a little longer than I expected. This story takes place at the beginning of "Iron Man 2," when Tony makes Pepper CEO. Since only six months pass between the events of the first two movies, I'm not doing any chapters set between the two, (though I do allude to what went on during that period). However, I'm thinking I'll do at least one chapter set between "Iron Man 2" and "Avengers," because with a year between those two movies, there are so many chances for sweet Pepperony moments (though I might end up making that a chapter of "Daylight" instead, just so I can make it a lemon :)). Thanks for your reviews, and I'll see you again in two weeks!

_Successor _

When he got back to Malibu after the Senate hearing, before he even woke up JARVIS, Tony started getting things ready. He put the champagne on ice, he went over the legal stuff in his head one last time, assuring himself that this would work, he _was_ allowed to name his successor, and then he waited, because he knew that Pepper was annoyed with him, so it was only a matter of time before she came down to the garage to voice her irritation. Lately, he hadn't exactly made her job easy, though when had he ever been an easy guy to work for?

In the past six months, he'd started dozens of projects but had yet to finish anything; he kept taking off to blow up terrorists who still possessed huge quantities of Stark weapons (thanks to Stane, who Tony had refused to even mention since the staged memorial service a few months ago); and then there was the fact that he was probably in love with her, and he had no idea how to deal with that, so he might have been acting weird around Pepper lately. He wasn't really sure—he didn't think he'd had a bona fide crush on a woman since he'd been a kid. He was Tony Stark—superhero, genius, and billionaire—so he'd never had any trouble getting the girl he wanted before. Why the hell couldn't bring himself to make a move on Pepper?

_Maybe because she's too important_, Tony thought grimly. _I can't try anything because I might...probably screw it up. But I can at least make her CEO._

He'd been wondering for weeks how to tell her what he'd decided. After all, there was no way that he was going to tell her the whole story: that he was being poisoned by palladium and thus preparing for the remote but unpleasant possibility that he couldn't fix that, and if he actually died, no one could run Stark Industries as well as she could. He knew that she was going to be shocked, and he hoped that the surprise would be pleasant enough that she wouldn't get suspicious, wouldn't flat out ask him what was going on, because if she did, he might just tell her, and somehow, the idea of Pepper worrying about him dying just made the whole situation even worse.

So, she'd be CEO from today on. He had champagne ready, and knowing Pepper, she could get someone from legal to come down and notarize her ascension as quickly and efficiently as possible. For now though, he was in the garage, pacing back and forth and telling himself not to pace because there was nothing to worry about—he'd find a solution, because he always had before, so there was no point in panicking yet.

Blood toxity at 24%? Fine. He'd been closer to death than that. So why was he so on edge? Maybe it was because this time, he only seemed to have two choices: he could take out the arc reactor and let the shrapnel in his chest rip his heart to shreds, or he could let the palladium core slowly poison him.

_Right, since when are my only options dying or dying? _Tony thought irritably. _I've just got to figure it out. What haven't I tried? Where haven't I looked? There's always another option..._

Ever since the fight with Stane, the first real fight Tony had ever been in, he'd realized something: if he had to, he'd rather go down like that than wait to slowly die from something he couldn't control. Sure, that was probably a sure sign that he was a control freak, but what else was new? To Tony, building the arc reactor had meant that he could manage the one part of him that didn't work right, that he couldn't control—it seemed like a bad joke that now it was killing him instead.

Deep down though, Tony knew what was really bothering him: for most of his life, he'd been selfish, immature, and extremely healthy. Now that he'd finally grown up, now that he was trying to do the right thing—he was actually making the world better in quantifiable ways!— he was dying. What had been the point of Yinsin's sacrifice if he died now, when he'd barely gotten started fixing things? It wouldn't be fair—not for him, not for the world, and though Tony had never been preoccupied with the issue of fairness much before, now that he was dying, the injustice of the situation rankled badly.

"There's gotta be a way to fix this," he muttered, absently tapping the center of his chest—beneath his shirt, the arc reactor emitted its usual glow. That little light seemed as benign as ever, belying the fact that it was slowly killing him. Later—later he would deal with that. Right now, he had to get ready to spring a promotion on Pepper.

There was no question that Pepper Potts was the best person for the job. Being his personal assistant for over ten years meant that she had, in many ways, been co-CEO for ten years too. She'd covered for him when he'd been too drunk or too busy with a girl (or girls) to run the company; she'd taken care of things on his behalf when he couldn't be in two places at once; and she'd put up with his wildly unpredictable new life, when he'd be at the office one day and blowing up caches of weapons on the other side of the world the next. With Stane gone—and thanks to that last, painful betrayal by the man who had been a second father to him—it was clear that he had to be careful who he trusted.

Tony had always thought he _was_ careful. He'd never been a terribly trusting person, and the whole mess with Stane should have made him even more suspicious. But instead, the whole incident had seemed to bring the people he could trust into sharper focus. Pepper, Happy, and Rhodey were maybe the only three people on earth that he could really rely on. So, while Rhodey was keeping the US government off his back, and Happy was helping him maintain some semblance of sanity in his daily life, Pepper would have to keep Stark Industries on track while he saved the world. Tony knew he had to hurry though—he had to do everything he could to save the world right now, because until (not unless) he could fix the problem of the palladium core, he might not have as much time to fix things as he'd hoped...

Tony tapped the arc reactor again, then shook his head. It was time to quit worrying and start working. Moving forward, he booted up the bank of computers before him. "Wake up, Daddy's home."

* * *

"Don't think, drink," he told Pepper a few minutes later. Tony watched her over the rim of his glass as they both sipped champagne and wondered if she was wondering what he was up to. He'd always been erratic, but lately...well, even by his own impressive standards, he'd been hard to work with lately.

"Um," Pepper said suddenly, swallowing a sip of champagne—she was nervous, and Tony decided he was probably sitting too close. He liked being close to Pepper, but he got the feeling that lately, she didn't quite know what to do when he got in her personal space. He leaned back, and she continued.

"What exactly am I going to say when people start asking the inevitable questions about how I went from being your personal assistant to CEO?"

Tony blinked. "See, the very fact that you're already thinking about your next move proves that you are vastly more qualified for this job than I am."

She laughed and Tony grinned.

"Seriously though," she said, her expression turning curious. "What are you up to, Tony?"

"Promoting from within," Tony said quickly, hoping that if he talked fast enough, he might stop her line of inquiry. "You're hardworking, you're smart, you're incredibly patient, you are a genius at keeping things organized, and you deserve this. If anyone asks, just tell them I put you in charge because you are, by far, the best person for the job."

Pepper smiled. "Well, thank you. And I agree that I am more qualified to be CEO than you are—Iron Man's kind of a full time job, and I've always had a hard time getting you to do one full time job, let alone two."

"Exactly," he said, raising his glass to her. "You're gonna do great, boss."

Pepper laughed and stared down into her flute of champagne. "Boss, huh?"

"I meant that sincerely," Tony said. "Obviously, I don't do 'sincere' or 'serious' very well, but that was supposed to sound genuine, if it didn't."

"I believe you, but...I was your subordinate until five minutes ago, so hearing things like that is going to take some getting used to," Pepper said, and they both drained their glasses.

Of course, she was right: knowing Pepper, she would need maybe ten minutes before she fully embraced her new role, but after that, she'd be fine. And sure, people were going to be asking why Tony Stark's personal assistant was suddenly in charge of the company. He hoped she'd avoid listening to any comments in that vein—luckily, between managing the company and keeping an eye on him, Tony guessed that she'd be too busy and distracted to listen to talking heads question her credentials. (Did people ever question the credentials of the pundits who complained about stuff on TV? If not, Tony wished they would—was that the kind of charitable cause he could donate money to?)

"I guess I'd better go get started," she said, smiling at him again. "Seriously, thank you for this."

"You don't have to say 'seriously,' because unlike me, you don't have trouble sounding sincere," Tony said, taking her empty flute, disconcerted at how happy he felt when his fingers brushed hers. "And, you're welcome. I'll be here, if you need anything—in terms of CEO tips, I mean."

"I'll talk to legal about the paperwork right now," Pepper said, hurrying toward the stairs.

As he watched her go, Tony tried not to sigh. On second thought, screw working in the garage today. He'd find Happy, and they'd work in the gym for a while. Suddenly, irrationally annoyed by a question he'd been avoiding, Tony tried to think of the last time he'd had sex (yikes, had it been that reporter, Christine something?), which was not a good thing to think about while Pepper was in the room, especially now that she was the boss. It had been...a while. Would it be more or less creepy to bring up the whole love and lust issue now that she was CEO?

_Probably more creepy_, he thought with a grimace. _Yeah, the gym sounds good._ For the moment, he was too edgy to deal with the palladium problem or his sexual frustration, but at least he could practice punching things.


	7. Omelet

Hi everyone! Sorry for missing last week, but I was out of town for the holiday weekend and completely forgot to edit this. This week's chapter deals with Tony and Pepper after the events of the Historic Grand Prix; in the movie, the scene where Tony makes Pepper an omelet ends with the two of them still on a Stark Industries jet, talking. Here, I had a lot of fun thinking about how the rest of their flight might have gone. Thanks for your reviews, and I'll see you again in two weeks. :)

Disclaimer: I own no part of the Marvel Universe. (Also, I can't wait to get "Iron Man 3" on blu-ray. :))

_Omelet_

_This is not okay_, Tony thought grimly. He was watching Pepper nibble at the omelet he'd made; for obvious reasons, neither of them was very hungry, but Pepper was the sort of person who would pretend to enjoy food out of sheer politeness even after surviving a near-death experience. Just the thought of how close she'd come to getting killed, because of him, _again_, made Tony feel a little sick to his stomach. It was one thing to try to kill him, but Pepper? For that alone, Tony hoped that Ivan Vanko would spend the rest of his life stuck in the darkest hole that Interpol could drop him in.

Let's see, today his blood toxity had been worse than ever before, a lot of innocent people had died thanks to some maniac, one of his favorite cars had been destroyed, and yeah, the aforementioned maniac had somehow recreated or stolen RT technology, which by itself would have put this in the running for "worst day ever." Obviously, there were a lot of days in Afghanistan gunning for that title, and the day Stane had tried to kill him was up there too, but knowing that a guy like Vanko had somehow gotten his hands on an RT was seriously bad news. And he'd been just one guy, who'd been targeting Tony for some reason. Tony didn't even want to imagine what would happen if another lunatic with less discriminating taste in murder victims decided to build a similar rig and start killing people.

"Are you okay?" Pepper asked suddenly.

Tony tried to look honest as he turned away from the window and reluctantly met her eyes. He had the uncomfortable feeling that Pepper could usually tell when he was lying, but he was hoping that under the circumstances, she wouldn't call him on it today. "Fine, why?"

"Because you've barely complained about anything, since the Expo started," Pepper said, smiling faintly. "You're not even talking about what happened today."

"I can start complaining right now, if you'd like," Tony said, shifting uncomfortably. She was right—Tony himself knew that he normally talked a blue streak, so the fact that he didn't feel like talking was a good indication of just how grim things had gotten.

Pepper shook her head, studying him. "It just seems like lately, you only complain about little things. If there's something really big that's going wrong, you get all...weird and quiet."

"Weird and quiet?" Tony repeated, hoping to obscure the accuracy of Pepper's assessment. "I'm definitely weird, but I'm almost never quiet."

"Exactly—I mean that it's weird for you to be quiet," Pepper said, her smile widening. "We're almost home, and you've barely said a word the whole flight."

"I was...cooking earlier, and then I figured I should let you eat," he said, glancing out the window again. Nope, the cloud bank they were currently flying through wasn't going to help him escape this conversation. "Plus, it was a long day—can't I be tired and not very chatty after a long day of dealing with a murderous lunatic?"

Pepper's smile faded—she was still considering him carefully. "If anything, you talk more when you're tired," Pepper said, but then she looked down at her omelet again and took another bite.

"Only when I've had caffeine," Tony said, standing up and heading for the kitchen. "Want some coffee?"

"See, that's another thing," Pepper said, and Tony could feel her looking at him as he poured some coffee from what was left of a pot he'd made earlier. "You've been uncharacteristically generous lately. You give things away, you make me food and offer me coffee..."

"You're the boss now," Tony said with a shrug—damn, of course Pepper was too smart not to notice his recent weird behavior. "I'm...actually just being my normal, selfish self, just in a different way. I made you CEO because I know you'll do a better job than me, but also so I'll have more free time. And if I hadn't made you food or coffee, you'd fall asleep, and then I'd have no one to annoy. See? Still me, still selfish, don't worry."

Pepper looked unconvinced. "Okay," she said, taking her cup of coffee.

Tony took a long sip from his own cup and went back to staring out the window. It didn't really work as a distraction though—there wasn't much to stare at but clouds, and he could sense Pepper watching him as they drank their coffee.

Natalie. He would find Natalie as soon as he could. She was a nice, aesthetically pleasing distraction—and her resume showed that she was more than just a pretty face. When was the last time he'd slept with someone interesting and intelligent? (Christine Everhart didn't count, since she hadn't really been that interesting after she finished her initial line of inquiry.) And if he tried to kiss her and things went wrong, so what? Natalie wasn't Pepper—it didn't matter if he screwed up.

She and Happy had taken the other jet home, since Tony had been tied up with the gendarmes for most of the day, and Natalie at least was probably fielding anxious phone calls already, calls that she and Pepper would have to deal with on their own for the time being. More than ever, Tony knew he needed to focus on not dying, but he also needed to figure out how Vanko had built an RT rig. The original theory was that a guy like that must have bought it on the black market somewhere…but no, that wasn't it. Tony had talked to the guy for maybe two minutes, but he knew that Vanko had built those whips himself, had constructed the RT that powered them too. Which was as interesting as it was alarming.

Vanko looked like a guy who'd already spent most of his life in prison, and now he was going to spend the rest of it there too, but the fact remained that he wasn't stupid. He'd known about the palladium, for one thing, but what really had Tony's mind working furiously was that he'd mentioned it. Vanko hadn't just guessed that palladium was what he used in the arc reactor—he'd also been able to extrapolate what would happen if you used palladium in an arc reactor that kept shrapnel away from your heart. An average thug might have been able to guess that having palladium in your system might make you sick over time…but it took someone with a mind like—well, a mind like Tony's—to know that it was killing him. That was why Vanko was a problem—homicidal tendencies and substantial intelligence were not a good combination.

"I can—it's like I can _feel_ you worrying," Tony said, leaning back in his seat and finally looking at Pepper again.

"I'm not," Pepper said in the deliberately calm voice Tony knew she used when she was both worried and a little annoyed. "Why Natalie?"

"She's…I needed someone right away, after I promoted you, and she was in the right place at the right time."

Pepper gave him a look. "Really?" she said, her voice heavy with irony. "So anyone that could have come when I sent for someone from legal would have had the same chance as Natalie?"

"Yes, any beautiful former model from legal would have been just as likely a candidate," Tony said, smiling a little when he saw Pepper, who was still trying to look annoyed, stifle a smile. "See, obviously I'm fine because I'm my usual shallow self."

"Well, I guess I have to agree that she's at least marginally qualified to be your personal assistant," Pepper said drily, "on the grounds that she didn't quit or suffer a nervous breakdown after everything that happened today."

Tony smiled. "You're not jealous, are you Ms. Potts?"

"Please," Pepper said, looking supremely unconcerned, but Tony couldn't help but grin—she was jealous, at least a little. That was…encouraging.

"We're about to land," she said briskly, snapping on her seatbelt. Then she pushed her plate toward him. "Sorry, but I wasn't very hungry. Want to finish this?"

"I'll take it," Tony said, standing up and returning to the kitchen. When he got there, he scraped the cold omelet into the trash. Clearly, alone time with Pepper was over for today—he glanced back and saw her doing something on her tablet, probably covering for him with someone—and he still hadn't said what he needed to say. And in addition to some other unpleasant physical symptoms he was trying very hard to ignore, Tony wasn't hungry either.


	8. Choice

Hi everyone! Sorry for the late update, but it's been a busy couple of weeks. This week's chapter takes place after Natalie brings Tony a martini in "Iron Man 2" and before he chugs it and heads to the party. I always wonder what Tony thought about before heading downstairs and generally screwing up royally with both Pepper and Rhodey (temporarily) while being ridiculously drunk. (The first time I saw the movie, when they first show Tony by the DJ booth, I remember just rolling my eyes and thinking, _there is no way this will end well_.) Thanks for your reviews, and I'll see you again in two weeks!

Disclaimer: I own no part of the Marvel Universe. (I can't wait to have an "Avengers"/"Iron Man 3" marathon though. :))

_Choice_

Staring into the mirror after Natalie left, Tony considered his options. It was maybe (probably?) his last birthday. Natalie had said that he should do whatever he wanted with whoever he wanted. So, he could finish the martini in his hand, then go downstairs and continue drinking heavily, because what better way to celebrate one's mortality and possibly imminent demise than by getting so plastered that he wouldn't be able to remember all the things he had to worry about? Or, he could bail on the party and do something else.

What he really wanted to do was get Pepper alone and...then what? That was what kept holding him back from saying anything, because what was he supposed to say? "Hi, so, after seeing you every day for years, and paying you to put up with me, I've suddenly realized that I'm probably in love with you, so let's start dating... so you can put up with me for free, in what little spare time you have when you're not running my company." Right. That totally sounded appealing.

The problem with Pepper was that he didn't really have anything to offer her. Usually, girls dated him because he was rich, handsome, and a genius. Now, on top of all that, he was a superhero, but Pepper wasn't influenced by stuff like that. Tony honestly had no idea what she looked for in people she dated, but it seemed safe to assume that she was not into guys who complained as much as he did (even when said complaints about hangovers or life in general were justified), or who made her get rid of girls after sleeping with them, or who almost got her killed with alarming frequency.

"This is...karmic," Tony muttered irritably, taking in his reflection. Yikes. He looked as sick as he felt. "Or, it would be if karma were real. I could have any girl in the world...and the one I want isn't interested."

Months ago, there had been that moment before the press conference, where he'd announced that he was Iron Man, when he'd alluded to their possibly dating. Pepper had shot him down then (rightfully so, in retrospect), so he hadn't brought it up again. But a few weeks ago, right when the palladium core had started to seem like it might actually be a cause for concern and not just an annoying bug he had to fix, something had almost happened between them, again, 'almost' being a recurring theme in everything to do with Pepper Potts lately.

He'd skipped out on a party in Dubai to blow up some old caches of Stark weapons that had been shipped to Nigeria, and then he'd flown straight home, eager to get out of the suit so he could make some modifications; the Mark IV was a big improvement on the Mark III, but there was definitely room for improvement. (Its lack of portability was one reason he'd built the Mark V.) In the garage, while the ceiling and floor rigs had pulled off the suit, he'd looked up to find Pepper, holding some papers and a small coffee cup, entering her code to get in.

"Hi," he'd said, surprised that she was back in California already. "You're not in Dubai. Did you—teleport here or what?"

She'd stared at him, smiling slightly. "That was yesterday. You do own several jets, you know. I flew back here after you left the party to take care of some contracts you left unattended. If you're going to save the world, you need to actually fund projects—"

"Awesome, good," Tony had said, surprised that he'd been in the air that long—the fact that he'd felt like hell had been an early indication that the palladium problem wasn't going to disappear on its own. He'd stumbled a little as he stepped away from the suit, and Pepper had put an arm out to steady him, catching his shoulder.

"Hey, you okay?"

"Tired. And you have coffee."

Pepper had handed him the cup of espresso. "JARVIS gave me your ETA, so I had time to get ready. Now, I have some things I need you to sign."

Tony had chugged the espresso in spite of its heat, the caffeine giving him a much needed boost, and then he'd signed the papers, not really looking at what they said. (He trusted Pepper not to sell off his organs to the highest bidder, or utilize his signature for any other nefarious purposes.) For the first time, it had occurred to him that maybe the indispensable Ms. Potts, instead of standing in for him as CEO when he was too busy, should have the job full time.

"Okay, so I'm done working for the day," he'd announced. "And clearly, I need to catch up on sleep."

"After that much espresso?" she'd said, raising her eyebrows.

"After flying through nine time zones, it's not gonna be a problem. So, you're handling things? Of course you are."

"Are _you_ handling things? Because you seem like you could maybe use a break," she'd said. "The hours you've been keeping lately seem…extreme, even for you."

"Why? Because I can sleep after coffee?"

"I only mention it because lately, the girls I've had to call cabs for in the morning have been fully clothed," Pepper said, following him up the stairs. "That just seems out of character for you, inviting girls up to your room and not—"

"I keep having to leave, to be Iron Man," he'd said defensively. "What exactly are you implying, Ms. Potts?"

Pepper had given him a shrewd look then. "You don't like other people to see it, do you?"

That had brought him up short. "See what?"

Pepper had motioned toward the arc reactor. "It's not scary, you know."

Tony had shrugged then, because after a lifetime of having women look at him with admiration or desire (often coupled with annoyance too), he was pretty sure that he wasn't ready for them to start looking at him with pity or disgust. Maybe the arc reactor itself wasn't scary, but the reactions it could inspire in people sure were—look at what had happened with Obie.

"According to the internet, there are actually girls who like this sort of thing," he'd said finally.

"Well, then maybe you should find a girl like that and take a vacation," she'd said, giving him a worried look. Yeah, she'd definitely seen him stumble getting out of the suit—he was going to have to be more obnoxious than usual for the foreseeable future if he wanted her to forget to worry about him.

"Know any girls like that?" he'd said, trying to sound casual.

"I'll keep my eyes peeled," she'd said, smiling at him in a way he didn't see much—like she was proud of him maybe, or at least like he wasn't always a huge pain to work for, and it had made him want to kiss her.

"Pepper—" he'd said, taking a step forward.

And then her phone rang.

"I need to get this," she'd said, looking at the screen and then back at him. "Will that be all, Mr. Stark?"

"Yes, thank you, and goodnight, Ms. Potts."

Then she'd answered her phone, and the moment had been over. Tony had gone to bed, and he had tried to stop thinking about kissing Pepper Potts, but tonight it was easy to imagine that he might die soon, and he wasn't going to do that without telling Pepper how he felt.

_Time for some liquid courage,_ he thought, draining the martini glass and turning to go and greet his guests. In the end, he didn't really have to make any choice at all: he would go to the party, and he would talk to Pepper when she arrived. Easy. After a few more drinks.


End file.
